very The Eyes Are The Best Part in an incredible way. the vibes are very fun and the intrigue builds so well. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Not my cup of tea. But thank you for the arc. Hopefully other people out there appreciate it more than I did :)

Never thought I’d tear up reading a cannibal book. This was such an interesting story from the family dynamics to the violence it had me glued. Not quite a 5 star for me as I wanted it to be scarier and more intense but something I would absolutely recommend. This was such a smart mix of emotions between grief and coming of age as a woman. Definitely one to check out!

The blurb for this book says “for fans of Jennifer’s Body and Little Fires Everywhere” which sums it up perfectly. If you read a lot of horror, this is gonna be very similar to all the grief themed and female rage/hunger books coming out lately… thankfully for me, those are topics I don’t get sick of reading about! Also learned a lot of fascinating things about Vietnamese culture.

Holy cow! I am obsessed with the way this story twisted and turned, I love a good mother daughter bonding but toss in a little cannibalism and it gets real interesting real fast. This read is so haunting and still tugs on the heart strings making it one i will often find myself thinking of and going back to.

A favorite book of the year contender for me!

I was intrigued because this book is selling itself as Jennifer’s Body meets Little Fires Everywhere which seems confusing but once i read it i completely agree; i’d also compare it to The Eyes Are the Best Part.
DONT go in reading too much of the synopsis, it gives too much away.

<i>What Hunger</i> dips its toes into body horror (a few parts are not for the squeamish) but at its core is really just a fantastic coming of age novel. It’s a story about high school freshman Veronica (but don’t worry, it’s definitely not YA) dealing with grief, her frustration of growing up Vietnamese-American in a small town with parents who barely speak English, and the suppressed female rage that comes with being a teenager finally starting to surface. The story went in several unexpected directions and I really loved how Dang created such fleshed out characters in Ronny and her family, the horror was also extremely well written. It definitely has the family drama aspect of Little Fires Everywhere or an Angie Kim novel. A really impressive 2nd novel!

What Hunger absolutely exceeded my expectations. I felt so endeared to the main character and felt her pubescent struggles deeply. I can’t imagine growing into a young adult while grieving such a personal loss at the same time and I feel like the author balanced these competing processes extremely well. The ending was what really tied it together for me. I thought it was incredibly creative and loved the bonding moment that we saw for the family.

This book is so strange and the plot line and cover immediately drew me in. I absolutely loved this one, and how it captured the essence of feminine rage in a teenage girl.

Ronny Nguyen is the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants growing up in the Midwest. The summer before she reaches high school, a family tragedy upends her world. As her parent's struggle with their own grief, Ronny is left to find her own way to cope, which she soon finds in the form of an insatiable hunger for raw meat. What results is a twisted coming-of-age story.

3.5 stars

This was such a wild ride. While this story has a crazy twist to it, at its core it is an exploration of the wide range of emotions of an adolescent girl. The author uses the hunger for flesh as a way to convey the grief, angst, and pure rage that Veronica is feeling as she enters high school.

These feelings are all multiplied by Veronica's family dynamic. She has been raised in a household that doesn't talk about their past or their feelings. And so she simply has no good examples of how she should be processing her emotions. There ends up being a really oddly touching mother daughter moment at the end that really ties things together.

This wasn't an easy read, but I think it was incredible effective.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

The tropes of female rage, revenge, and consuming (things, meat, people, etc) has been common (if not a little overdone) in the last few years, but this one differs a bit in how much more of a literary fiction and coming of age story this is. This one is quite heavy, with themes of assault, grief, generational trauma, and the difficulties / misunderstandings between immigrant parents and their children. I enjoyed the conversations in this, particularly about the parents' traumas and how they've not been explored or dealt with and how this has impacted their parenting and children.

The blurb about this being for fans of Jennifer's Body and Little Fires Everywhere feels correct. It's literary with horror elements. It focuses on the horrors that come with violent and insatiable hunger/thirst but more so on the horrors of life.

I'd recommend this for fans of The Eyes Are the Best Part, Things We Lost to the Water, and The Female of the Species. The themes and elements of those three combined feels like a good representation of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy for review!

This plot is so up my alley. A mixture of “good for her” and Jennifer’s Body, with some multiculturalism and all that jazz? Love it.

The writing so underserved this premise. It is the definition of “telling, not showing.” I’m so disappointed with how this turned out.

This past autumn, a publicist emailed me insisting I had to read What Hunger, saying it was totally up my alley, and even sent me an early ARC. I decided to give it a try—and once I finally picked it up, I devoured it in just two days. I couldn’t believe how spot-on this total stranger was about my reading taste!

Catherine Dang’s What Hunger is a powerful and poignant exploration of identity, family, and the deep emotional struggles that define our lives. Through lyrical prose, Dang crafts a narrative that navigates the complexities of cultural displacement, particularly the immigrant experience, while also diving into personal and societal expectations.

The novel follows Ronny, a young woman torn between her Asian heritage and the pressures of assimilation into a Western society while she’s trying to navigate her grief over the loss of her older brother. Dang’s depiction of hunger—both literal and metaphorical—becomes a central theme. It reflects the protagonist’s yearning for connection, understanding, and acceptance, while also highlighting the pain of not feeling “enough” in any space. It also centers her rage, as she leans into it in ways that we as women don’t always allow ourselves to do at times.

Dang’s writing is striking in its intimacy, offering a raw look at the inner turmoil of its characters. Each chapter feels like peeling back another layer of self-awareness, with Ronny’s desires and fears laid bare for the reader. The narrative unfolds slowly but steadily, building a sense of tension and urgency that keeps you engaged until the last page.

What Hunger is a book that stays with you long after finishing it, its exploration of hunger not just as a physical need, but as an emotional and existential longing, deeply resonating in today’s complex world.

If you love books that explore female rage and grief, then this may be a book that you too will devour as easily as I did.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a copy of this arc, all opinions my own.

First off, I think Dang is very talented and I'll definitely read more from them. However, this book is mixed for me mainly because of the content warnings. I loved the exploration of grief and love, but was really taken aback by the cannibalism. There was some other violence that I thought was in too much detail for me to enjoy the book.

Reader look at the content warnings before reading, might be helpful.

"What Hunger" is a teeth-gnashing coming-of-age horror story of girlhood disrupted by grief and being forced to grow up too quickly.

To be a woman in this world is to survive every day. We are constantly surveilled, criticized, and compared, our bodies seen as disposable vessels for pleasure and procreation. Add to that the experience of being a person of color or a child of immigrants, and I'm sure even survival feels impossible (because it often is.) But in "What Hunger", we get a taste for what it's like to hold the power—to take a bite out of the men that have tried to make us cannibalize ourselves into something small and weak.

Dang paints a bloody picture that there's no right way to protect our peace or let loose feminine rage. We can fight violently in the moment, uncage the beast that claws and tears with nails and teeth. We can plot quietly—allowing the slow awakening of the dormant darkness within—not rushing to strike until the time is juicy and ripe. Just make sure you bring along a friend to help you clean up 😉

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I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A short book that packs a huge blood-splattered punch. Make no mistake, this book is gory. But underneath the bloodshed is a beautifully told story of female rage, adolescence, trauma, and (of course) plenty of cannibalism.

If you like the book, The Lamb, or the movie, Raw, give this a read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 stars!

It was about time I delved back into some horror! This was giving more of a literary body horror vibe rather than a full on slasher/tension story, but was still very layered and visceral. Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

Some vibes that you can expect out of this one:
- Slow building, descent into madness
- Feminine rage
- Family dysfunction
- Generation trauma
- Grotesque, almost cinematic visuals
- Weird (reminded me of Bunny by Mona Awad)

What really surprised me was that it was also balanced out by: touching commentary on grief, beautiful descriptions of the realities of Vietnamese-American children of refugees (relatable for all in the Asian-American diaspora, I'm sure), and wince-worthy, cannon event teenage coming-of-age moments.

I'd really describe the writing and plot as very grounded and REAL feeling. I personally loved it, but wouldn't recommend this to people who: don't like body horror or frustrating/unlikeable characters, need something that "makes sense", or dislike slower paced unraveling. Worth a try if any of this sounds intriguing - but definitely check TWs!

This is a coming of age story that slides (a bit) into horror territory.
The story kept me engaged throughout, tackling heavy themes like generational trauma, grief, assault, immigration, family dynamics, food/hunger, anger, alienation-- and coping through cannibalism...

The themes are well-balanced, managing to be tender, brutal, vulnerable, and compassionate, while navigating the complexities of the adolescent experience.

For fans of The Lamb, and the films Raw and Jennifer's Body.

This book was eerily intriguing, and while I'm usually not the biggest fan of a high school coming-of-age story, the summary got me hooked and the main character ("Ronny"), had a great internal monologue that pulled me into her life. I felt like it was a story that delved equally into cozy and horrific, into generational trauma and personal trauma, into apathy and deep, intense passion. While Ronny didn't have excellent friendships or relationships with most people in the book, she didn't feel shoehorned into what was going on, and didn't feel unrealistic. Dang did a great job of exploring Ronny's preparation for high school and first high school semester from the lens of a child who is coming into their own, even if they're not sure what that is, and who recognizes what's important to her (especially by the end of the story).

The slower slide into horror for this book almost made the eventual shoe-drop more impactful, like a slow-burn that you're just waiting to catch ablaze. While I was reading I was wondering what generational trauma had to do with some of what was going on, but as a Caucasian woman myself, born and raised in America by descendants of English and Polish immigrants, I don't have anything I can lend to a Vietnamese point of view. And by the end of the book I realized just how much of the trauma for Ronny's parents was present throughout the book, though she herself didn't recognize it for what it was.

In the end, this book felt like a coming of age and healing book for Ronny's whole family, and not just her. I appreciate the depth of the story that I could understand, and recognize that it's impossible for me to fully understand the depth of what any Vietnamese-American family could, especially in the years after the Vietnam war, before I was alive.

Thank you to Dang for the glimpse into this narrative and reality, for all of the story that was reality, and thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an Advanced Reader Copy of this story.

What Hunger focuses on main character, Veronica (Ronny), as she enters her freshman year of high school after experiencing a great tragedy. How does Ronny deal with the issues of young adulthood, grief, and growing up Vietnamese in America?

This book quickly makes you care for the young protagonist and her relationships with her family members. It deals with the struggles of growing up, systems of patriarchy, and the hardships faced by immigrants. Each chapter reveals more depth to the characters and helps the reader understand them like they could be members of their own family.

At times explicit in its depictions of blood and violence, perfect for readers who enjoy their share of horror and fans of films like Raw.

k wow — what do I even say? Thank you netGalley for the arc of this upcoming horror release -- I went into this book completely blind which made this one of the most unique reading experiences I've ever had.

My gut says 5 stars. I’m going to think on it, but I’m certainly in the 4.5–5 range.

I think this book is a true work of art and expertly crafted, but simultaneously, I hated the dark feeling that accompanied me while reading this and am relieved it’s over. Its gruesome details were a little hard to bear sometimes, but that is the point. And true art often makes one uncomfortable.
This is an absolutely disgusting, vile (complimentary) depiction of female rage and suffering and retaliation.
But also — it is so much more. This book is unexpectedly so tender and relatable, while also completely outrageous. There is mother-daughter bonding through rageful cannibalism, yes, but there are all these tender little moments that contain multitudes. Interwoven are themes of girlhood & adolescence, grief, otherness, generational trauma, humility, and the value of family and sibling bonds.

I found Veronica’s character arc to be a very relatable depiction of the loss of innocence and the misery that accompanies it when transitioning from childhood into adulthood. She’s completely awkward and curious and angry, and her wide span of passionate emotions reminded me of what it’s like to be a 14-year-old girl — and how difficult and confusing it is to be a 14-year-old girl. Being a younger sister to an older brother with a similar age gap made her all the more relatable to me — her awe and admiration for her older brother, Tommy, the feelings that they are an island apart from their parents, maybe even apart from each other — so very real and known to me.

I think a reread of this book with annotation supplies would be particularly enlightening on its craft, foreshadowing, and broader social commentary.